The statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, but over the 2008-2010 period thirty large companies while their profits were good avoided to pay their dues.
The average effective tax rate for the companies over the period was 18.5 percent, said Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, both think tanks.
Their report also listed General Electric Co, Paccar Inc, PG&E Corp, Computer Sciences Corp and NiSource Inc as among the 30 that paid no taxes. All 280 corporations examined were profitable over the period. Pepco Holdings, a Washington, D.C.-area power company, had the lowest effective tax rate, at negative 57.6 percent, among the 280 Fortune 500 companies studied. Corporations will say rightly that the loopholes that let them slash their taxes were perfectly legal, the report said.
“But that does not mean that low-tax corporations bear no responsibility … The laws were not enacted in a vacuum; they were adopted in response to relentless corporate lobbying, threats and campaign support,” the report said.
As Congress and the Obama administration struggle with a sluggish economy and high deficits, corporations are pressing Capitol Hill for more tax breaks, including one that would let them bring home overseas profits at a reduced tax rate.
The congressional “super committee” tasked with finding at least $1.2 trillion in additional budget savings by November 23 is so far deadlocked across a familiar divide — Republicans refusing any tax hikes, Democrats defending social programs.
On Tuesday, a panel of budget experts warned super committee members that they would fail the country if they do not meet their goal. Financial markets have been waiting for many months for signs that Washington can get its financial house in order, but few have been forthcoming.
Patriots all of them, but talk of paying their tax see how they behave? These are the very epitome of American Capitalism while the old, young and the veterans are thrown to the gutter to fend for themselves. Bill of Rights was penned by an archangel but tax loopholes are the work of Mammon. The same horned Beast also keeps 1% of the nation to enjoy the best fruits of other’s labor and luxuries they don’t really need but money can buy. Did I hear at some quarters the following cry, ‘Occupy the Wall Street is Un-American?’
I am afraid this life in the bubble of corporate greed is a phenomenon, which shall soon be a thing of the past. How long can man’s indifference to fellow man endure?
benny